Multilateral Aid Review summary - International Finance Corporation (IFC)

The IFC is part of the World Bank group. IFC fosters sustainable economic growth in developing countries by financing private sector investment, mobilizing capital in international financial markets and providing advisory services to businesses and governments.

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Contribution to UK development objectives	Satisfactory
	+	Wealth Creation and private sector development are central to IFC’s remit and it is a critical global player.
	+	The largest development finance institution, c.38% of global DFI commitment volumes combined with significant advisory capacity.
	_	IFC is less focussed on the poorest countries than many other multilaterals.  Its portfolio is heavily concentrated in middle income countries (MICs) and particularly upper MICs.
	+	Performance against its targets is good, 74% of investment projects achieve satisfactory or better development outcome ratings FY2007-FY2009.
	_	Performance is weaker is some critical areas including Africa
	+	IFC has introduced a range of gender-related programmes and produced gender-sensitive guidance that is widely used
	_	IFC has made progress in fragile and conflict states with more expected, but so far IFC’s role is limited and it is not yet a core strength.
	+	IFC climate change focus is quickly growing with a range of new initiatives introduced.
Organisational strengths	Strong
	+	IFC measures financial and economic returns and reports a number of productivity measures.
	_	World Bank Group pay mechanism inflates salaries at IFC and across other MDBs.
	+	IFC has a clear results based strategy based around its five strategic pillars and monitors progress through its corporate scorecard.
	+	IFC’s results framework is recognised as a leading example among development finance institutions.
	+	Financial management, independent audit and transparency are very strong.
	_	IFC has historically underused some of its financial products such as guarantees.
	+	IFC’s transparency at the HQ level is generally good, with some justifiable limitations due to commercial sensitivity. A significant amount of information is easily accessible in a range of formats on IFC’s website.
	+	Voice of developing country shareholders increased by over 6 percentage points following recent reforms.
Capacity for positive change	Likely
	+	IFC has shown significant improvement in a number of areas in recent years, but shareholders are not yet aligned behind a single reform agenda.